UPDATE

Here I am to report about the big girl bed transition and to update on the latest DR appointment. It's a miracle I am blogging so close together..I know!!

We are happy to report we transitioned into a BIG GIRL BED with absolutely no problems!!! Lucky for us Alexis was not attached to her crib and welcomed the newness of her room. We have a very good sleeper so she doesn't get out of bed at night and will sometimes get out in the morning and come and will either meet us in the living room or our bedroom but for the most part when she wakes up, she just likes to chill out in bed until we come and get her..during the week that is since she knows she has to get ready for school. The weekends she is ready to get up and play in her PJ's.

Sharing her bed with Papa

Her BIG GIRL dresser

She's not quite tall enough to get in her bed on her own..one more growth spurt should do it but in the meantime, she is having fun climbing these pet stairs we found online. We were a little hesitant to buy a "pet" stair for her but she absolutely loves it! We did have a little mishap with her falling out of the bed one night. As you can see the bedrails do not "block" an opening between the rail and the head board. Her little 27 pound body managed to scoot itself through that hole during the night. Luckily Daddy was in the guest bedroom (since mommy snores A LOT while pregnant) to come to the rescue when she hollered at us. She also transitioned nicely with her naps...no new routine needed! She takes her 2 hour naps in her bed just fine as well. Now, I wish potty training were this easy!

Playing ball with Daddy in between bouncing

We need shorts for a Toddler with no butt!

Now that she can put her shoes on and take them off, it's easier for her to bounce between toys/activities in the backyard. But then again, it does help when mommy buys a TON of new shoes that are slip ons from Walmart. Gotta love WalleyWorld. And we are so grateful for the warmer weather!

Dancing with Daddy to her Dora doll that sings the "We Did it" song. She can play it at least 5-10 times and dance to it.

This was hilarious to see!! Daddy had not finished reading the paper from the morning and so he tried to finish reading it at night when our princess came home from school. She purposely went over to his newspaper stack, got a stack of her own and went back to her chair to "read" the paper. Gotta love how she's mimicking Daddy in the background. HILARIOUS!!

Time to turn the page!

Already sitting at the adult table and "playing" dominoes while we play..lining them up!

She couldn't wait to test out her little brother's swing after Daddy put it together.

SOOOOOOOO, Mommy and Little J had an appointment on Wednesday, March 23rd. Daddy was not present since he had to be gone for a week on a work trip to Brazil. But, Mommy got to see John James since it was time for an ultrasound and our little man is still a little man!! I've had so many friends been told the wrong gender, I had to ask again to confirm. We are growing how we should FOR NOW but given my history of not growing big babies, my DR will be taking pics of our little man in another month. Right now he is weighing in at about 4 pounds. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed really tight that he gains weight in the next 4 weeks. He definitely has a kick to him!! His head is sitting on my right hip and I have some feet up by my right ribs according to the ultrasound. My DR does not think I will go full term either which I am so happy to hear since I am so WAY OUT THERE and HUGE!! But my blood pressure and weight are still good. :-)

32 weeks, 5 days

-the first picture is of his face. He's looking right at us!

Here are some pictures of the nursery..the walls are still too bare for me but for the most part we are done! We really just need a baby and some newborn diapers! Joe went up in the attic and got all of the infant seats for the car, the swing, and all the baby clothes from Lexi so I could sort through them to see if I could keep anything. I found more than I thought to keep! It saddened me to donate Lexi's clothes but I was ready to organize!! I guess I am nesting in a way?

We went with another animal theme for the nursery since none of the sport themes really impressed us. Yep..that is Alexis's old crib!

And her old changing table....we did put new carpet in and Joe painted the walls. That is the only way I can get a room painted is if we are having a baby! But that doesn't mean I will keep having kids to get rooms painted!! DONE DONE!!

And Lexi's rocker and infant chair and her swing...gotta love the "hand me downs"

And her dresser...and my Target lamp!

His closet really needs some work. One of my really good friends is throwing me a "sprinkle"  shower on April 9th in which I hope to stock his closet with some of my gifts since we are in major need of CUTE boy clothes. You can only register for so many outfits!!

I will be back in a month when I have gifts to show, pictures to show of our little man and an accurate update on when to expect the arrival of John James!

I'm Back!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last blogged! I know I say that every time I start blogging but really...where does the time go!! We have been extremely busy since we last "talked" and have faced some adjustments along the way that just took some time to work through. It seemed like everything happened at once for Alexis...she turned 2, got her 2 year shots, her 2 year molars were coming in AND she she moved to the 2 year old room at school. It never fails that EVERYTIME she goes to the DR for a well check-up for shots, she gets sick! GRRR..so we battled a fever for a few days and then of course her molars bothered her for a few weeks. Her swollen cheeks, her moodiness and her clinginess were all well represented!

Playing Blocks with Daddy

Her adjustment at school also took a few weeks since the 1 year old room is VERY quiet compared to the 2 year room and she had to make some new friends since most of her friends had not yet moved when she did in January but as you can tell by the video that we have a very LOUD and confident 2 year old now and she is not afraid to speak her mind. We are lucky with the fact that she does listen pretty good for a 2 year old. Lexi has learned some song with an alligator in it and her uncle was giving her a hard time. Notice she is standing on a Wii board as her stage!! Our princess in the making!

We finally decided to break down and get Lexi's bangs cut professionally. We weren't sure what to expect since she has the most unexpected yet not often meltdowns so we just prepared for whatever came out way. Lucky for us...SHE LOVED IT! And it also helped that a big mirror was in front of her so she could stare at herself since she loves to watch her mouth move in the mirror at home after she brushes her teeth.

This lady was SO good with her!

Moving to the 2 year old room has taught her to be more independent. We had bought her a booster chair but we finally had to put it together since she constantly wants to sit at the "adult table" for some of her snacks and all her meals and not in her highchair. So we have retired the highchair until Little J is able to use it.

We are definitely still in our Dora phase so wouldn't you know, we found some Dora shoes at Academy when we went to look for a few things for the yard! Of course this is all she wears right now.

At Papa and Gigi's house..

The weather finally warmed up for Houston so we took the opportunity to go to the zoo and get out of the house on a Sunday since we had been cooped up way too long!! Let me tell you what a difference a year can make in terms of how much Alexis enjoys, understands, engages, plays, and how long she lasts since she doesn't get as tired as fast. The length of time between zoo visits was almost a year!

Checking out the monkeys on Daddy's shoulders

She LOVED this net ladder that she couldn't even attempt last year.

There is a slide on the other side of the net ladder and instead of sliding, she just "hung" out!! Lucky for her, a lot of kids were not around.

She is still not crazy about the petting zoo...TOO DIRTY for her..she has to wash her hands after almost everything she does but they teach her that at school. Lucky for us, there was a kids sink right by this petting zoo with soap.

She had a change of heart about the carousel from last year. She actually told Papa that she wanted to ride on the carousel so of course just say the word to Papa and here we go!

The zoo had a new African exhibit that just opened and she wanted to go and check out one of the huts. Daddy was quick enough to get a pic!

Getting a little help from Papa to help play the bongos with Daddy.

Lexi has also been busy attending birthday parties and most of them for 2 year olds are the "jump" theme. The first one she went to was for a classmate that had a bouncey in her backyard like Lexi did. She gave us a little scare when she fell right out of the bouncey onto the concrete that was right in front of it and scratched her face up pretty good. But once the shock wore off, she wanted to get back in and bounce! Lots of 2 year olds at this party so she liked jumping with kids her age.

The second jump party, which are the pictures you see here, were for her friend Kate. And she just couldn't get enough of this gymnasium sized room filled with 10-12 different kinds of bouncey's with slides, tunnels, little rides in them. It was crazy! Daddy had to do most of the bouncing and climbing since Mommy couldn't fit in most spaces.

She loved this one with 2 slides! She could almost make it to the top but needed a little boost at the top.

It was a Minnie Mouse theme, wearing her ears, drinking some juice and eating some Chick Fil A nuggets. It was hard to get her to come and sit down but we "bribed" her with juice since she doesn't get sugar very often. She is hyper enough!

She has definitely become more curious, testing our limits, more vocal and WOW, CAN SHE COMMUNICATE!! She is learning her months, she knows her right from her left, we can almost dress ourself. She can distinguish and tell you what is different between 2 objects when we ask her to compare. And her memory is incredible! If you tell her she can do something at night, like, see you in the morning for some pancakes, she will hold you to it!! She will remember things that you tell her before she goes to bed!

Hiding behind the couch and she was not thrilled I found her.

So, the million dollar question is: How is the potty training going? Let's just say it's GOING!! She currently is in Pull Ups right now since school requires them and they are helping to potty train her there as well. I do know that I have to make the switch to big girl underpants before anything effective takes place. But we definitely don't want to do a "bootcamp" on her or anything because we have heard of Toddlers that FEAR the potty because it was forced on them. SO, with that being said, she is getting better about telling us when she has to go, the trick is to get her to the potty. She does consistently go before she goes to bed since it is part of her routine. We were cutting her some slack since she had so many adjustments at the first of year. AND, THIS WEEKEND WE ARE PUTTING HER BIG GIRL BED IN HER ROOM!! Yet another adjustment!! So I will let you know how that goes the next time I blog. But she doesn't like being wet and we managed to find Dora Pull Ups so she is adament about wearing her Dora pants and helping us put them on her. So, little by little we are making progress and who knows what will happen when little man comes. She may or may not regress.

Somehow Lexi managed to get her OWN BOUNCEY from Papa and Gigi at Christmas and with the weather warming up, Daddy decided to put it up this weekend and let me tell you, it was not only fun but simply hilarious watching her and listening to her sing and tell us stories.

Crazy jump hair!

She just couldn't get enough of this slide!

Getting a boost from Daddy until we showed her the "entrance"

Socks came off so she could get better grip so she would climb up by herself and then slide down backwards on her tummy and cracking up the whole time.

Not sure what she is doing her but it was a kodak moment

Our monkey likes to be upside down a lot these days.

Mommy and her princess...excuse the no make-up...it was a Sunday!

SOOOOOOOOOO.....what is the latest and greatest on Mommy and Little J?

Everything is technically going well with the pregnancy and with that I mean John James is growing just like he should be HOWEVER, Mommy's body is taking a "beating"!!! I have A LOT MORE aches and pains and side effects this time with my hips always hurting, muscle spasms in my neck/shoulders and legs, slight migraines and VERY DRY EYES!! But little man is doing well..he is way more active than Lexi throughout the day, he kicks and moves a ton and with room running out, I can REALLY feel it. AND, my belly is WAY out there this time!! We just had a DR appointment on the 9th and everything is good. I always fear weighing in since my previous appointment my DR said my weight gain was too rapid so this most recent DR visit, I lost weight! Imagine that!! I tested negative for Gestational Diabetes...HOORAY, and my DR thinks he may come earlier due to him being TOO big!! She was joking around with me saying that between the 2 kids, I should have an "average" size baby! HA!! But we are every 2 week appointments for the next 4 weeks and then we go to every week. We get to see our little man on March 23rd which is the next appointment! We haven't seen him in 12 weeks so we are anxious to get a look again and the DR likes to start taking measurements at every appointment starting at 8 months which I am right there already! How time flies! Once Alexis transitions into her bed this weekend since we are using her old furniture for his room(not even here and getting hand me downs), I will try to take some pictures of the nursery since the blue/brown combo really turned out good. It's not quite decorated to its full potential yet but I haven't quite decided what else I want on the walls since it is a jungle theme.

Sorry this took so long!

Until next time which will be in 2 weeks since we will have pictures of John James!